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conflict
What does Gaddafi's fall mean for Africa?
Mahmood Mamdani
2011-09-06, Issue 546
cc V VGaddafi’s fall points to more Western interventions to come in Africa, writes Mahmood Mamdani.
How famine makes unscrupulous businessmen fabulously wealthy
Rasna Warah
2011-09-06, Issue 546
cc OxfamThe global aid industry has made a core group fabulously wealthy, writes Rasna Warah.
Somalia: Global war on terror and the humanitarian crisis
Horace Campbell
2011-08-18, Issue 545
cc F WThe US government’s counterterrorism activities and ‘humanitarian’ assistance in Somalia and the Horn of Africa go a long way towards explaining the region’s entrenched problems, writes Horace Campbell.
Riots, royal weddings and recession
Lara Pawson
2011-08-18, Issue 545
cc F WIn their highly misguided and at times absurd responses to the UK’s recent rioting, we may well ask if Britain’s elites ‘are living in a time warp’, writes Lara Pawson.
Libya, Africa and the new world order: An open letter
To the peoples of Africa and the world from concerned Africans
2011-08-09, Issue 544
cc M PWe, the undersigned, are ordinary citizens of Africa who are immensely pained and angered that fellow Africans are and have been subjected to the fury of war by foreign powers which have clearly repudiated the noble and very relevant vision enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.
Libya and the Right to Protect
Khadija Sharife
2011-08-04, Issue 543
cc S AThe ‘international and continent-wide issue is not so much whether Gaddafi's regime should be removed’, but rather ‘how this should be approached, and why it is being approached at all,’ writes Khadija Sharife.
Famine by man not drought
Africa Answerman
2011-08-04, Issue 543
cc A EThe famine spreading across the Horn of Africa is ‘not principally the result of drought’, it’s ‘due to political and social circumstances that if left unaddressed will begin one terrible unending famine capable of wiping out entire populations and massively stressing global resources’, writes Africa Answerman.
Libya: The true costs of war
Charles Abugre
2011-07-28, Issue 542
cc B.R.QA wicked blow to Africa, the invasion of Libya has little to do with protecting civilians and all to do with strategic interests. Why are these invaders so heartless, asks Charles Abugre.
Uganda: The state and the nation
Annelieke van de Wiel
2011-07-26, Issue 541
cc US ArmyUganda has had a turbulent history of nation-building, with identity often rooted in ethnicity rather than notions of citizenship, notes Annelieke van de Wiel. This year’s International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) conference gave rise to numerous discussions on the need for the country to face up to its past and develop an inclusive Ugandan identity, van de Wiel writes.
Can the crime of displacement be accounted and paid for?
Levis Onegi
2011-07-26, Issue 541
cc B HFaced with the slow response to the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons, the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) convened a debate over 3–6 July in Kampala on gaps between ratification and implementation, engaging member states and involving civil society.
NATO's debacle in Libya
Alexander Cockburn
2011-07-19, Issue 540
cc S AWith support unravelling from within NATO itself, the organisation’s intervention in Libya is looking increasingly humiliated, writes Alexander Cockburn.
South Sudan and the meaning of independence
Horace Campbell
2011-07-14, Issue 539
cc ENOUGH project‘The new tasks of building a society to meet the needs of the people in the South Sudan must be conducted in a manner that puts the interests and wellbeing of the ordinary people above everything else,’ says Horace Campbell.
Genocidal actions by government of Sudan must be stopped
Explo N. Nani-Kofi
2011-07-13, Issue 539
© AFP/UNMIS/S.PriceThe situation in Sudan ‘demands solidarity and action from all peace-loving people and human right activists,’ writes Explo Nani-Kofi, in a call for readers everywhere to take whatever action they can to stop the government’s genocidal actions.
South Sudan: Africa’s newest state should sustain the dream
Aloys Habimana
2011-07-13, Issue 539
cc ENOUGH projectSouth Sudan’s independence is ‘a dream come true’ for the country’s people, but ‘to avoid turning that dream into a nightmare, the new nation’s leadership will need to adopt a line of governance that reflects greater commitment to human rights, public freedoms and justice for all,’ cautions Aloys Habimana.
The CIA's secret sites in Somalia
Jeremy Scahill
2011-07-14, Issue 539
cc E IRenditions, an underground prison and a new CIA base are elements of an intensifying US war, according to a Nation investigation in Mogadishu, by Jeremy Scahill.
Manning Marable and the Malcolm X biography controversy
A response to critics
Bill Fletcher, Jr
2011-07-07, Issue 538
cc AzlsDespite the overwhelmingly positive response to the late Manning Marable’s ‘Malcolm X: A life of reinvention’, within days its publication, the book ignited ‘a firestorm in some quarters of the Black Freedom Movement’. Bill Fletcher Jr examines the controversies around the biography.
Sudan: International crimes and threats to peace are mounting rapidly
Eric Reeves
2011-07-07, Issue 538
cc UN Photo‘After so many years of work on Sudan, I thought myself fully braced for the worst the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime might do. As so often before, I was wrong. The litany of egregious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law over the past five weeks is simply overwhelming---in South Kordofan, in Abyei, but in other areas along the North/South border as well.’ Eric Reeves provides an overview of the situation.
NATO is an outlaw, the ICC is its accomplice
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
2011-07-06, Issue 538
cc V 2Despite the contravening of at least 11 stipulations of international law, the International Criminal Court continues to turn a blind eye to NATO’s activities in Libya, making a mockery of its supposed status as an unbiased arbiter, writes Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey.
The peace and justice movement and the NATO bombing of Libya
The need for clarity on the AU roadmap for peace
Horace Campbell
2011-07-07, Issue 538
cc D VThose within the peace and justice movement seeking an end to NATO’s illegal bombing of Libya must also be careful not to extend misplaced support for dictators, writes Horace Campbell.
Cry woman cry, cry beloved Zimbabwe!
Grace Kwinjeh
2011-07-07, Issue 538
cc V VWhen Zimbabwe’s political temperature rises, women and children are the most vulnerable, writes Grace Kwinjeh.
Igboland: Freedom, survival, future
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
2011-06-30, Issue 537
cc WikimediaForty years on, first and second generations of Igbo ‘removed from their parents and grandparents respectively who freed British-occupied Nigeria in 1960 and survived the follow-up genocide’, are ‘once again tasked and poised to restore’ their ‘lost sovereignty’, writes Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe.
The potential balkanisation of Sudan and the role of meddlers
Yohannes Woldemariam
2011-06-30, Issue 537
cc HDCThere’s clear consensus that defining and demarcating the border between North and South Sudan is a necessary precondition for peace. But deploying Ethiopian peace-keepers to Abyei is simply a ‘band-aid’ that ‘would not help peace and may even make things worse by intensifying regional rivalry,’ writes Yohannes Woldemariam, given the Ethiopian government’s lack of neutrality in Sudan.
Senegal: Violent uprising in Dakar
Human rights activist Alioune Tine seriously wounded
Tidiane Kassé, Yellitaare
2011-06-23, Issue 536
cc Seneweb'There is a violent uprising happening now here. In the city center of Dakar, in the suburbs and in the provincial areas. A lot of demonstrations and riots are happening,' writes Tidiane Kassé, as Senegalese people take to the streets to oppose a new law being discussed in parliament, which would allow a presidential candidate to take power with just 25% of the vote. Meanwhile, as a Yellitaare statement calls on the Senegalese government to ensure the safety of human rights activist Alioune Tine, reports from Dakar suggest that Tine is 'seriously wounded', after being hit on the head by attackers alleged to be the body guards of a minister close to President Abdoulaye Wade.
Why Regime Change in Libya?
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
2011-06-23, Issue 536
cc BRQ NetworkThe reasons for the ongoing bombing of Libya go beyond a thirst for oil and can be found in Gaddafi's long-term 'insubordination' to Western imperialism argues Ismael Hossein-Zadeh.
Tinpot bombardiers: NATO in Libya
Alexander Cockburn
2011-06-15, Issue 535
cc V2In NATO’s hands, UN Security Council resolution 1973 has morphed into a clear attempt at regime change in Libya, writes Alexander Cockburn. He stresses: ‘A hundred years down the road the UN–NATO Libyan intervention will be seen as an old-fashioned colonial smash-and-grab affair.’
Chilling the Arab Spring
Neoliberal financiers in North Africa and Palestine
Patrick Bond
2011-06-09, Issue 534
cc K A‘There appears to be very little difference in what is being advocated [by the IMF] to Arab democrats today and what was advocated to Arab dictators yesterday,’ writes Patrick Bond.
Libya: NATO's war of aggression on sovereign African state
Obi Nwakanma
2011-06-09, Issue 534
cc KalliophDespite all pretence at humanitarian rhetoric, the Western invasion of Libya is simply a question of securing oil and energy resources and responding to the challenge to its international hegemony posed by China and India, writes Obi Nwakanma. ‘It is the 19th century all over again,’ Nwakanma stresses, while underlining the threat posed to Nigeria by blindly supporting the invasion.
Maghreb uprisings: Truth is ‘impossible to find’
Sokari Ekine
2011-06-09, Issue 534
cc KalliophDespite all the news and analysis on Libya, we still don’t know very much about who the rebels are and where their support comes from, writes Sokari Ekine.
Truth dispatch: Updates from Libya
Cynthia McKinney
2011-06-09, Issue 534
cc MagharebiaOn the ground in Tripoli and western Libya, Cynthia McKinney reports that the current NATO-led war looks nothing like the mainstream media would have us believe: ‘The situation on the ground in Tripoli … could not more different from what is being portrayed by Western news networks and newspapers.’
Sudan: The ‘conflict is inflaming every hour’
Sokari Ekine
2011-06-09, Issue 534
cc E PSudan’s invasion of the town Abeyi; sexual harassment in Egypt; the impact of Egypt’s uprising on migrants; the detention of Syrian blogger Amina Arraf; Western Sahara; and the opening of the a centre for women in Eastern Congo, the City of Joy, are among the topics featured in this week’s review of African blogs, by Sokari Ekine.